Licking County’s Progressive Movement

Our Progressive Platform

We, the Licking County Progressives seek to,

I. Identify where there is a corruptive influence in our politics – that is, anything which interferes with the democratic process -, then resolve to address it by striving to promote campaign finance reform, abolishing the Electoral College as well as superdelegates, and reforming redistricting so as to eliminate gerrymandering.

II. Promote an investment in Universal P-16 Education.

III. Promote National Health Care (including Mental Health) for all.

IV. Address Wealth Inequality in Licking County by highlighting the need to stop crony capitalism at every level first with underlining how unfairly negotiated and enforced trade deals have impacted the local economy, finding out how lax regulation on agribusiness has affected local small farms and promoting a means to address such, and by addressing the need for living wage permanent jobs, reliable transportation, affordable housing, food security, and reversing gentrification policies.

V. Encourage, help to organize, and defend labor unions (including pushing back against “right to work” and “at will” laws and proposals).

VI. Emphasize through education and activism why it is essential for the success of conservation efforts, reverse or at least mitigate climate change (including helping local fellow citizens recognize the impact such has had on farming, deer hunting, and health care), understand the effects of fracking, promote antipollution policies (with particular emphasis on the quality of our drinking water; think Flint, Michigan), break away from fossil fuels and move towards sustainable energy sources.

VII. Promote and protect ethnic and sexual diversity (with an eye towards immigration, racism, islamophobia, and the need to unite).

VIII. Promote reform in the criminal justice system by supporting returning citizens, note how the struggle starts with juvenile detention and racial inequality, and emphasize that addiction is a health crisis as opposed to a crime.

IX. Promote important reforms (including the fairness doctrine and journalistic standards) to improve and even protect our free press.